If
you were to believe some buzz on social media, BJP is apparently
nervous about UP state elections and are apprehensive of the outcome.
That is a shame after the tremendous work Yogi Adityanath has done for
the state working tirelessly day and night and improving every aspect of
the most populous state of 220 million with chronic issues of
corruption, crime, backwardness in many social aspects and much communal
unrest. While BJP seems to be taking no chances in checking various
political factions, the potential lacklustre win of Yogi (or god forbid a
loss of UP), it is their failure in utilizing advanced electioneering
techniques in state elections. It is almost looking like they want to
prove professional management with modern marketing techniques used by
people like Prashant Kishore are marginal and have little influence on
the voter. In doing so, they could drown themselves until it is too
late to recover.
Most of the BJP
elections are nevertheless managed by very dedicated and patriotic
people but they are no match to professional election management
techniques like Indian PAC plush with hundreds of crores of rupees given
by political parties where they could hire some of the top talent in
the country using the most advanced technologies and mind capturing
methods. Look at the
qualifications of
the people in the Indian PAC of Prashant Kishore, they come from IITs,
IIMs. Young with enormous energy to make a mark on their career these
people are unfortunately pummelling the worst corrupt politicians like
Jagan, Mamata Banerjee win with thumping majority. Many political
parties have realized the strength of this propaganda type of
electioneering management and are showering their loot to these people
to make matters worse for the future of the country and its democracy.
"Elections are a perception game"
Elections
are a perception game. It is not about what you did but what voters
perceive what you did. It is about connecting to every potential voter
and capturing what is on mind of the voter and giving the impression
that you will address them in full earnest if given their vote. This is
not to say the money power used to woo voters by corrupt politicians
has no influence. But with nearly half of the Indian population using
smartphones today, with young and aspirational voters, there is enormous
influence that can be made with the use of technology. In fact, the
technology and sophisticated marketing can be used to affect the
thinking of every section of the public. With clever memes, catchy
phrases, video songs and arduous reaching out to voters in every nook
and corner through road trips with video walls, while using the latest
big data and AI techniques these professional election outfits are
doing just what a product marketing team would do. Just look at the
activities Indian PAC did in recent elections in
Andhra,
Tamilnadu and
West Bengal and it is not a rocket science to emulate and even do better than them.
A simple reading of articles shows the level of planning and perfectness
of execution of elections in Andhra, Tamilnadu and West Bengal. It shows
that it matches any well run high blitz multi-million dollar marketing company trying to market a product.
Just one
song 'Ravali
Jagan, Kaavali Jagan'
released on Jagan just before Andhra elections got more than 2 crore
views. There is no doubt massive deception mechanisms such as Temple
trips of Christian fanatic Jagan and Nusrat Jahan's convenient marriage
to a Jain in West Bengal to fool Hindu voters are also heavily engaged.
No
one understands the use of technology and perception games more than
Narendra Modi. He is known to be the earliest adopters of technology
and his use of digital technology whether it is Narendra Modi app for
smartphones, constant interactions with sections of society whether
students, business bodies, Mann ki baat or others is well known. Modi
himself traveled lacs of miles criss-crossing the country during 2014
elections which was professionally managed by people like Prashant
Kishor along with technology entrepreneurs like Rajesh Jain. Amit Shah
himself is believed to have orchestrated a brilliant campaign in UP in
2014 reaching out to every part of the state that led to stupendous
success. All these are seemingly being jettisoned with only Narendra
Modi who is already immensely busy running the country used as sole
campaign star. This is while the adoption of technology has immensely
increased in the country and there are an increasing number of young as
well as older voters who are using the technology in every aspect of
their life. When elections are won by thin margins this becomes even
more important. What is stopping BJP to create a Yogi Adityanath App,
or create powerful songs/memes on what Yogi did to UP, how it was
before he was CM and how it was improved, creating opportunities for
voters to call into the CM, running video walls informing every voter
in every village of UP the accomplishments of Yogi Adityanath last 5
years, doing pada yatras educating the voters. There are 300 MLAs who
should be campaigning, bringing attention to voters with video walls on
how bad things were and how much it changed in every village. There are
many such ideas if we bring to bear bright minds and develop them.
In
the 1984 US election campaign, Ronald Reagan, who was seeking his
second term, used just one liner that propelled him to easy win, 'are
you not better than you were 4 years ago'. Yogi Adityanath has done
tremendous work during his 5 year term and it is a matter of shame if
BJP cannot capitalize on it and win anything less than last elections
and in fact, it should get more seats. Will they step up and change or
face a suicide? They will have only themselves to blame.
Regards,
Satya Dosapati